March 2, 2008

• A Whole Lot of Love!!!!

   

                        40 foot as a matter of fact!!!

  I’m not very good with measurements and especially now that I have been in Zambia for three years (miles vs kilometers, feet vs centimeters, kilograms vs pounds)…..well you get my point.  But even in my confusion, I know that 40 feet is pretty big!!  You might ask, “What are you talking about, Renee?”  Well I am excited to share the news!  Friends, we have a very BIG God who continues to amaze me wonder upon wonder.  I recently wrote a newsletter article telling you that we had come to the end of our resources.  I think the article was titled “We Need More.”  It ended with my telling you that if we had faith, it was going to be a time for miracles because only when we are empty-handed can God fill us up. When we decrease, God can increase!  I wrote that article in December even though I think it just “hit the stands” this month.

             

  Let me share with you all that God has done since that declaration of simple truth: 

   

  • First, the Kazungula Ministry of Health gave us a box for the very first time!  The box I am referring to is a large government box of medicines and medical supplies that every rural health center gets once a month or when they have seen approximately 1000 patients.  Standard medicines like Tylenol and Ibuprofen and Penicillin along with supplies that will indeed save us money. 
  • The new guidelines are now out for patients on ART medications with new first-line medications added to the mix.  That necessitated a new order book….when we got ours, we were pleased to find not only ARTs on the list but also the prophylactic antibiotic HIV patients are often given as well as the vitamin supplements that they also receive.  Not only were the medicines going to be free for the adult patients, but there were also suspensions for children!!!  Again a very significant savings since we now have over 400 patients in our chronic HIV care program!!!
  • With all of those HIV patients, we were bound to have mothers with new babies….babies that we have placed on bottle feeding to help prevent mother-child transmission due to breastfeeding.  Well bottle feeding requires infant formula, so we also have been purchasing cans of formula for a number of infants age one year and under.  We have been spending between $350-500 per month just on formula.  We also have been supplying our malnourished twins Trust and Trywell with not only formula but also vitamin fortified cereals.   Well one of our sponsoring churches gave Sons of Thunder a check in the amount of $2400 to be used for formula…..Hallelujah!!
  • The article not only stated a need for more money, but also more beds, more supplies, more medicines, more prayer, more staff and definitely MORE GOD!

  Well, one of the clinical officer students that we had last summer called and came from Lusaka to see us.  He told us when he had prayed for God to show him his destiny, be felt God calling him to a place with an orphanage and he had come to see if this was the place. We needed to stay within the old budget if we were to pay him and the apartment we considered still needs work.  After prayer and seeking God’s will, Geoffrey agreed to take a lesser salary and move into the apartment unfinished. I don’t know what God is doing, but just a few days ago a nurse showed up from Livingstone with the same king of story….God speaking to her that she had done all she could do at the place she was working and someone had told her of Sons of Thunder.  She took a taxi from Livingstone and set out to find us.

  ·        I saved the best for last…..back to the 40 feet of love!  Well, it is amazing to me

  how God puts people, ministries and organizations together…..people from

  different areas of the country and even the world.  I’m not sure how it happened

  but I think one man found an organization in California called S.A.V.E. and told

  them about Sons of Thunder, specifically the Medical Ministries.  SAVE stands

  for “Save All Valuable Equipment” and they are a group of people who actually

  find and store valuable medical equipment in a warehouse and send containers all

  around the world!  Sal and I were contacted by them via e-mail and asked to

  supply them with a medical wish list which we readily did.  That was just a few

  months ago and I am happy….no I am ecstatic to tell you that a 40 foot container

  full of love is on the way. I don’t know what God has in mind, but we are going to

  receive hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, an ultrasound, portable x-ray

  machines, delivery bed, dental chair, incubator, a 110 generator etc…etc…etc. 

  There are over 400 items on the manifest!!!!!   Talking about God’s provision!!!!

  Even the most skeptical person has to be scratching his head!!!

   

  

   

  

   

  

   

   

  ·        Now if that wasn’t enough……Pastor Jerry has been storing supplies for us since 2005 before we came.  Different things than the medical supplies from SAVE.  Things in Pastor Jerry’s garage are cabinets, a reception desk, exam lights, beautiful inside wood doors.  These are things we didn’t know at the time if we would have a need for, nor did we know if we would be able to get them sent over…..but God knew.  There is a man in Kansas who sends over a brand new tractor once a year to somewhere in Africa and he happens to have half a container empty.  He is willing at no cost to us to let us fill up the other half of his container, so Pastor Jerry is taking stuff to Kansas sometime soon….We will basically completely stock and furnish the clinic (and/or hospital…which by the way is what people already call us).

   

  Mind You….Sal and I are just doing what God puts in front of us day in day out here at the clinic at Sons of Thunder in Zambia working 24/7 bringing hope to many through the love of Jesus.  We had no part whatsoever in any of the above….except to tell God what He already knew: that we had given it all.  We needed Him and still need Him to see His vision fulfilled.

   

  Our God is an awesome God.  He meets all our needs and satisfies all our desires….He is the God of abundance.  Thank you so much Lord for using parts of your body to help the other parts in need.

   

   Romans 12:4-5 says “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

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